Gabriel Plotkin

Gabriel Plotkin (born 1978) is an American investor and former hedge fund manager who founded Melvin Capital Management in 2014, a long-short equity hedge fund named after his late grandfather. Plotkin built Melvin into a multi-billion-dollar firm with average annualized returns of approximately 30% from 2014 to 2020, drawing on his prior experience as a portfolio manager at SAC Capital Advisors' Sigma Capital division, where he honed a strategy focused on consumer and retail sector shorts.

The fund's fortunes reversed dramatically in early 2021 amid the GameStop short squeeze, during which Melvin incurred losses exceeding 50% of its assets under management in January alone, necessitating a $2.75 billion bailout from Citadel LLC and Point72 Asset Management. Despite partial recovery efforts, persistent investor redemptions and market volatility prompted Plotkin to liquidate Melvin's portfolio and cease operations in May 2022, returning remaining capital to investors.

Gabe Plotkin was born in 1978 and raised in Portland, Maine, in a modest Jewish family.

Plotkin was born in 1978 and raised in Portland, Maine, in a Jewish family of modest means. He is of Jewish descent, a heritage reflected in his naming of Melvin Capital Management after his late grandfather Melvin.

Plotkin married Yaara Bank, a native of Queens, New York, in 2006. The couple has four children, including a son named Eytan Shmerel. Plotkin and his wife have been honored by Chabad for their family commitment to Jewish values and community support, with Plotkin serving as a portfolio manager while prioritizing family observance.